Raymond James Financial Inc. Acquires Shares of 236,877 Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Progress Software Co. (NASDAQ:PRGS) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 236,877 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $15,432,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PRGS. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Progress Software by 45,918.9% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,143,110 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $74,474,000 after purchasing an additional 1,140,626 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Progress Software during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,699,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Progress Software by 228.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 208,450 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $13,581,000 after acquiring an additional 144,892 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in shares of Progress Software during the 4th quarter worth $6,235,000. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Progress Software by 208.7% during the 4th quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 106,819 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,959,000 after purchasing an additional 72,218 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Progress Software from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on Progress Software from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Progress Software from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Progress Software from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $83.00 price target on shares of Progress Software in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Progress Software currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.33.

Insider Activity at Progress Software

In other news, CAO Domenic Lococo sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $56,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $242,000.72. This trade represents a 18.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ian Pitt sold 703 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.29, for a total transaction of $39,571.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,317 shares in the company, valued at approximately $468,163.93. The trade was a 7.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 18,185 shares of company stock worth $1,024,193. 3.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Progress Software Price Performance

Shares of Progress Software stock opened at $54.83 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $55.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $61.48. Progress Software Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.00 and a fifty-two week high of $70.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.48, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The company has a market cap of $2.36 billion, a PE ratio of 35.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.85.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) last released its earnings results on Monday, March 31st. The software maker reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $238.02 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $235.64 million. Progress Software had a return on equity of 41.56% and a net margin of 9.08%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.25 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Progress Software Co. will post 4.01 EPS for the current year.

About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation develops, deploys, and manages business applications in the United States and internationally. The company offers OpenEdge, an application development platform for running business-critical applications; Chef, a DevOps/DevSecOps automation software; Developer Tools that consists of software development tooling collection, including .NET and JavaScript UI components for web, desktop and mobile applications, reporting and report management tools, and automated testing and mocking tools; Kemp LoadMaster, an application delivery and security product offering cloud-native, and virtual and hardware load balancers; and Sitefinity, a digital experience platform foundation delivering intelligent and ROI-driving tools for marketers.